Orcs of the Northern Steppes

 A friend is creating a skirmish game centred around various small warbands venturing into the realm between worlds for fame, fortune, or other nefarious to noble purposes. That thin excuse was enough for me to justify getting miniatures from a company I am super excited to champion, (Yedharo Models) because their models are fantastic, the company itself is lovely, and orcs that look distinctive is always a joy.

I will say if I had one minor complaint it is that the scale between the male models and females is wildly off. a 32mm "Female Champion" is 48mm, while the "Male Champion is a massive 63mm. This leads to them looking wildly out of scale with one another, which makes a mixed-gender crew more bizarre looking. Considering most of the male models don't fit on the default base size for my friend's game, I have a convoluted lore reason why the warband is entirely female.

Enough talking, pretty model time! No surprise there are lots of conversions, because it's also me...

First up is the Champion. Equipped with a two-handed axe, covered in scars, with the bright fiery red I decided to paint all the orcs with, and somewhat covered in battered orc-steel armour. The green took a lot of experimentation to get feeling right. I didn't want hulk-neon, but I also didn't want to mute the green into yellow. It's a mix of a variety of made-for-war-vehicles greens, browns, and yellows that are almost impossible to do a step-by-step for! The red is a fun mix of Vallejo Mahogany Brown, through light brown, to bleached bone with a few glazes of an orange-y red.

The metal itself was a bit of an experiment. Gunmetal washed heavily black, highlighted back up to silver with lots of scratches and chips to make it look well beaten. I debated washing it with either green (like Skyrim) or chromed blue, and in the end settled for a very subtle blue glaze on the first layer only.

It just so happened that I backed their 3d kickstarter and got an STL of the champion as well! Having two of the same would of course be silly, so for variety's sake, I turned one of them into a great-hammer wielder. Same woman, different weapon du jour. Fun question for comments; which is the 3d print and which is their mould?

The hammer itself was a fun conversion. Delicately removed the blade of the axe, and then kludged together a part of the axe with plasticard hammer head. I wanted this thing to look a more reasonable sized war hammer that still evokes something fantasy-orc sized.

Next up: any good war party needs ranged cover! Archers are terrifying, and orc-strength metal bow wielding archers are presumably doubly-so! The physics of a metal bow would be fascinating but here we are! Kudos to Yedharo for doing an astoundingly small, durable, detailed trio of archers. They're 'missing' the trademark orc boots, but hey; they're fleetfoot archers. I did a bright red feather mostly to contrast all that green and brown, but otherwise kept to the same consistent scheme. All the 'leather' bits were highlighted with a hatching-style to imply rough and durable, well-worn leather made to keep up with a lifestyle of jogging across the steppes fighting everything from wolves to raiding parties...

Also one of many perpetual kudos to Yedharo; the poses on these archers is fantastic. Where they're in a dynamic pose, there's a tactical rock to ensure base adhesion still holds. Even the archer-default shooting model is bracing against a rock, and the dynamism of the other two lends a distinct impression of 'ranger' over the stoic and staid poses of many rank-and-flank archers.

Next up is the probably least-converted miniatures short of the archers in my entire force. I also decided narratively that these warrior women have the concept of "Battle Braids" - Noteworthy deeds justify more or wilder hairschemes. The initiates are archers (safely learn combat from a distance) with short, unbraided hair. The champion has her mid-back length ponytail to highlight her prestige. By contrast we have these two. The axe/dagger woman has a half-shaved head and is working on enough length for a braid, displaying her relative 'youth', whereas the great-axe orc has a full and complex set of braids, showing off her experience. 

The Yedharo orcs (male and female... though of course mostly female) have a bit of a battle-bikini problem, so I added a putty half-skirt to the axer as well. It's still open on one side for mobility, but she's swapped the traditional loincloth with a bit more thigh protection on her 'off-side'. It's hard to tell by final highlight, but she also started from a much darker basecoat.

Next up is the front-line combatants! The Shield Trio was a fun set of conversions with various degrees of modification. First up is mace-and-shield, who is also a very new warrior lacking her braids. The shield she is equipped with is a mix of plasticard (the base layers of the shield) and green-stuff (the diamond boss and rivets). She is otherwise an un-modified warrior, merely replacing a weapon with a shield. (Strangely, her model doesn't seem to exist on their site anymore!)

Second is a spearwoman with that perpetual paperclip spear-haft, with a chunk of axe handle butchered from another model in the vein of two-hander axe from above. She too has a battle skirt rather than loincloth, but also sports some custom-puttied shoulder and thigh armour. I also puttied in a battle braid similar to the Champion's, to highlight her years of experience.

Last up is a very traditional sword-and-board lady. Her battle-braids mark her as well as a long-veteran, and she's actually not converted at all! Yedharo made her when I was in the middle of converting the rest, and I had to add her to the crew. Her shield doesn't match the other two, but who knows; different armourer, older/newer shield, or personal/familial preference?

Not technically included in the crew in most battles, but I had the minis and had to use them was the banner bearer and musician. In the concept of the skirmish raiding party, a pair of orcs standing around announcing "HERE WE ARE" doesn't make a ton of sense, but they're so cool! The absolute badassery of the banner-bearer's pose and expression, the pseudo-Warcraft vibe of the banner's shape, and her distinctive two-blade cleaver/machete marks her as an instant too-cool-to-not-paint. The hornblower is a far more 'obvious' pose, but gets kudos for the detail of the horn itself, and also the puffed-out cheeks to clearly indicate she's mid-battle-call.

I haven't decided on what symbol or markings to do on the banner. I keep waffling between more Warcraft-style symbolism, First Nations art style, or not-yet-specified "option c". Opinions welcome!

Nearly-last and OMG Most is the Orc Queen. In my warparty she's the bruiser who's extra-large, extra-armoured, and extra-badass. Rather than being an alternate raid leader, she's the heavy who gets called in when something really needs to die. She is possibly the next-to-most converted mini in the crew. Unfortunately her unconverted model lacks the boots, and has a battle-bikini rather than the back-flap. I had to give her the same boots as the rest of the party, which helps to balance out the armour on the rest of her. I love the pose, the giant greatsword (great-cleaver?) and crown wrought into her helm. It was fun to try to make her boots feel like the rest of them. I find greenstuff by default has too "soft" an edge, so this was at least three layers of putty-dry-slice-putty again. Overall I'm quite pleased with the effect of it matching the rest!

The ultimate, and hardest-to-photograph mini in my party is the Battle-Sage. This is the most extensively converted mini of the crew. Technically the base model is the greataxe-woman from before! After a haircut and shave, re-pose of her left hand, addition of skirt, pouches, cloak, hood, and staff, she's now nearly unrecognizable. In her hand she brandishes a totem of jade, and on her back is an obsidian dagger. Her staff is made up of a piece from a Sylvaneth druid attached to a paperclip coated in liquid greenstuff to make it look like a sapling pulled from the ground for exactly this purpose. Tied to it for ritual purposes is another jade token, some raven feathers, and rings of precious metals. As the women of this tribe do battle and interact with the other races, so do their Sages lead the parties and ensure the wisdom of the tribe is foremost in all dealings. Being a Battle-Sage she still wears the steppe-defeating boots, battle-bra, and groin armour, but it is augmented in a semi-cloak of the mystic. 

She was a ton of fun to convert, a challenge to paint, and I have photographed her fully three times, once and most recently after gluing her back together after a nightmare drop in which she severed her thigh and came off her base!

I truly can't stress enough how much fun the Yedharo minis line is. They do fantastic Orcs, have expanded to a full and beautiful line of dwarves, and are adding demons (though not nearly enough!) Expect to see more of theirs on this blog eventually and grab what you can of theirs!

Triumphal Return and some Modern Soldiers

 I have had a terrible time of getting models finished, and even worse at getting them photographed! Either stuff only gets half done, or it's nothing to write a blog post about.

More frustratingly; recently, I have tried three times so far to photograph the things I HAVE gotten done and am proud of. Each time they're either blurry, too badly colour-imbalanced, or some combination of problems.

At long last, I have a set I don't hate the colours of!

As a pre-amble, I am hoping to create a skirmish game that is near-apocalyptic. Too many games or universes that are post-apocalyptic describe an apocalypse decades or centuries ago, which does allow for mutations and sci-fi weaponry, sure, but also glosses over a huge and fascinating period of any apocalypse: What happens when everything first starts to break down? Debatably the Walking Dead has elements of this, but there was a show named Jericho that I think aligns better.

What happens when resources are just getting scarce enough that you start eyeing your neighbours... Are they hoarding more soup than they need as you go hungry? Perhaps you should grab a bat and go find out...

Enough intro, on to the pretty pics! I am finally happy to say I have finished some models from Hasslefree Miniatures, which is great because I love their stuff, and want to trumpet them as much as possible. My game will eventually feature 8 models, so here's the first team: A group of veteran soldiers, bereft of the military structure they've depended on all these years, using their favourite weapons and trying to cling to a sense of honour and order in an increasingly insane world.

First up, the leader:

"Deano", a model with a great Sci-Fi inspiration, wielding a P90. The colour scheme for all these is "generic 80s camo", with a more modern combat boot vibe. It was a lot of fun lightly contrasting the pouches, belts, and combat vests from the fatigues. The bases are, as is my usual, clear acrylic, 1.5mm by 20mm in this case.

Next up is "Harlequin". Equipped with a combat rifle and full tactical gear. Lots of drybrushing went into making their uniforms look dusty, well used, and in need of replacing!

Lugging the marksman rifle is "Demon". Sure he's got no scope but if he's on the table, is he really using a scope with any heavy magnification? These are all using a simplified, table-ready version of my typical skin paintscheme; Vallejo medium flesh tone, washed with light rust, highlighted back up through to "pale flesh". The light rust colour is rouge enough to give a feeling of living, pinkish skin.

Next up is the second P90 wielder (with a scope AND a suppressor! Someone's fancy...) Titled "Joker" by Hasslefree, he will fit the role of backup for either my supplies runner, or with his heavy gear, perhaps support for the squad assault weapon soldier.

Speaking of the runner, this is Pilot Vic; Geared down to just a pistol (and barely a jacket for whatever reason), she is intended to be able to get in, grab supplies, and get out before anyone can tie her into a firefight. I should have converted her with a backpack or satchel bag, but the creases on the fabric of her coat were too cool to paint to risk covering them up!

Ensuring no one gets too curious, and to make sure his team returns safe, the Squad Assault Weapon is wielded by "Badger". Geared up for a heavy firefight, it's likely he'll only be able to pack out a box of matches or a roll of toilet paper in the way of supplies, but he'll make sure Vic and the rest have time to get the quilted, not just some basic 2-ply!

Our last "main" soldier is the combat-rifle-wielding "Bergil". He's also bringing some severe heat with a backpack-slung RPG, but I haven't decided yet whether that will be in-game legal or just "he has a what?!" visually interesting item. I tried to imitate what I assume is the "arid colour" scheme for the gun, also to bring more of the weapons away from a boring, hard-to-see-detail black of most of them. You can see other examples up the line. Considering what weapon a model is wielding usually matters a bunch in game, there is some merit to the old GW-style super bright and distinctive gun colours, as impractical as they may be.

Last up, but first into any breach is "Woody", equipped with every Half Life player's favourite trusty combat shotgun. I always find painting darker skin to be a difficult balance between making it look natural, but also not 'under-highlighted'. I think I did a decent job on him, for all that everything but his arms are entirely covered!

Not that I'm brave enough to do a tutorial of it yet (there are far better people for that out there), I find imitating the above steps, but starting with light rust, and washing with Model Air Mahogany gives a lovely rich dark skin tone that doesn't feel like you've painted wood or forgotten a few steps of highlights. I intend to keep experimenting, and once I get confident enough that I can execute each time I'll put up a tutorial!

That said, here's my Veteran Squad all ready to go for the as-yet-unnamed skirmish game I totally intend on writing after I finish the rulebook, illustrations, and playtesting for Diesel and Dust...